The present invention relates to offloading computing tasks from a connected device (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, wearable devices, and so on), and more specifically to selecting a number of devices to transmit commands to a cloud service for processing.
For various reasons, computing systems may offload computational tasks for processing on a cloud service, or a remote system (or cluster of systems) that provides computational services to requesting user devices. Typically, tasks offloaded to a remote system are computationally expensive (e.g., parsing a vocal input for an executable command or a query, facial/image recognition, authentication, and so on) and may need connectivity to multiple information sources. Offloading such tasks from a client system to a cloud service may reduce power usage at the client system, increase battery life for mobile user devices, and provide for higher performance by performing tasks on a system with greater processing capabilities.
In a typical device environment, multiple devices may be able to obtain input that can be used to generate a command to be offloaded to a cloud system. For example, a tablet, smartphone, and a wearable device (e.g., a smartwatch) that are collocated with each other may each be able to obtain voice input to be processed by a cloud service. Some devices may be connected to a cloud service through an external network connection, while other devices may only be able to transmit a command through another device with an external network condition.
In some cases, devices may activate when a user says a predetermined command (e.g., “Hey Siri”). A number of collocated devices can activate when the user says the predetermined command and generate a query for processing by the cloud service. However, not all of the collocated devices may need to process the query and offload the query to the cloud service.
Users often have multiple devices that can transmit a command to be offloaded to a cloud service. Each device generally has its own display and feedback capabilities (e.g., haptic feedback, audio feedback, and so on). Additionally, each device may have a different form factor that can perform certain tasks (e.g., notifying a user) for a given context, which may be determined from sensor data, imaging devices, and/or other information gathered at the device. For example, a tablet may be suited for displaying video to a user, while a wearable device may be suited for providing haptic feedback to a user.
Generally, multiple user devices can associate with the same local network to allow for coordination of services across the multiple devices. In some cases, some devices may not be able to connect to an external network itself, but may use a bridge (e.g., a cellular phone or cellular data-enabled tablet) to connect to an external network. These devices can offload commands to a cloud service by transmitting the command to the bridge device, which then transmits the command to the cloud service.
Cloud services typically receive a command from a user device with data identifying the user device or a group of user devices that are the source of the command. After the cloud service finishes processing the command and generates a response, the cloud service can either send the response to the specific requesting device or the group of devices.